Steve Westly is the Founder and a Managing Partner of the Westly Group.

He formerly served as the Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer of the state of California - the world's sixth largest economy. As Controller, he chaired the State Lands Commission and served on 63 other boards and commissions, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, the nation's two largest public pension funds, which together invest more than $350 billion. During his four-year term, Westly spearheaded innovative tax programs that helped close the State's budget deficit and also led an effort to commit more than $1 billion to clean technology investments.

Before running for office, Westly helped guide the online auction company eBay through its period of most rapid growth, serving as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Business Development, M&A and International. Westly helped bring eBay to Europe and Asia and developed the marketing and acquisition strategies that paved the path for the firm's exponential growth.

He began his career in Washington, D.C., first working on Capitol Hill and later in the Office of Conservation and Solar at the U.S. Department of Energy. Westly returned to California to become special assistant to the President of the California Public Utilities Commission. While there, he published two books on alternative energy and the utilities. He?s also held senior positions at Sprint Communications, Netcom, and WhoWhere?.

Westly holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where he served on the faculty for five years. He and his wife, Anita, run the Westly Foundation, which provides education and health care services for children and underserved communities throughout California.

Steve Westly, Founder of clean tech investment firm The Westly Group and former Controller for the state of California, paints a landscape of the present and future opportunities in emerging alternative energy.

With the long-term health of the planet at risk and the history of alternative energies in the making, Steve Westly, former CFO for the state of California and founder of VC firm The Westly Group, challenges students and entrepreneurs to leave their hand print on the changing shape of the world. He cites the example of great explorers like Magellan and Columbus who broadly reached beyond boundaries never thought capable of being broken. Dependance on oil has these same challenges. He asks the audience, "What new things are you going to discover?"

Business leaders put pressure on elected officials, and they should be vying for a worldwide mandate on energy reduction, cleaner building materials, and the adoption of Japanese and European energy standards that are some of the most stringent in the world. Steve Westly, Founder of The Westly Group and former CFO of California, calls for global reform and the adoption of carbon cap and trade, stating that these real solutions to help propel the planet aren't any more difficult to implement or use than EBay.

When orders for Tesla cars outshine orders for the GM Saturn, Steve Westly takes this as a sign that clean technologies are going to help lift America from the recession of 2008/2009. He points to other indicators, such as that abundance of clean tech company IPO's, that will also help add new stems and leaves to the economy. As an aside, he also parallels the difference between US start-ups, enabled by the safety net of a VC-backed ecosystem, and their Chinese counterparts, who are forced to be profitable immediately or shutter.